Earth's ancient secrets revealed at the bottom of the Philippine sea

A 50-million-year-old geological treasure buried beneath the Philippine Sea Plate preserves fascinating data about the Earth's mantle .

According to SciTech Daily, a team of scientists from China and Japan has identified the unique characteristics of the flow field in the Earth's lower mantle, through interesting findings deep beneath the Philippine Sea plate.

The mantle is the layer below the crust and also plays a particularly important role in Earth's geological activity - (Photo: SCITECH DAILY).

The lower mantle is an important layer of Earth, which may play an important role in the evolution and cycling of matter within the planet.

In general, it is believed that it is not only the final destination of sinking tectonic plates but also the birthplace of mantle plumes, which play an important role in the evolution and cycling of surface matter. and inside the earth.

Humanity's knowledge about the characteristics of flow fields and mantle geodynamics still has many gaps.

Seismic wave research results show unusually fast velocity zones at a depth of 700-1,600 km beneath the Philippine Sea plate.

Of these, two anomalous regions at a depth of 700-900km are not related to current subduction zones, but are determined to be two mantle flows from about 50 million and 40 million years ago, that is, in the Cenozoic era. .

The two anomalous regions H1 and H2 are two ancient mantle flows accidentally preserved beneath the Philippine Sea plate - (Photo: IOCAS).

Thanks to an unexpected stroke of luck, it was preserved intact, undamaged by newer geological activities.

The discovery provides further evidence about one of the ways the planet's mantle operates.

Changes in this mantle also greatly affect the properties of the entire planet and the pieces of Earth's crust above - which carry the seafloor or continents.

Understanding more about the mantle helps geoscientists better understand how the Earth evolved geologically and predict future planetary-scale changes.

The study led by Professor Fan Jianke from the Institute of Oceanography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS), published in the scientific journal Nature Geoscience.

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